It’s been almost three years in the making, but the Northwestern women’s basketball team (6-7, 1-1 Big Ten) finally can say it has a chance to compete in the Big Ten.
For any other team, tonight’s game at Indiana (7-4, 0-1) would be merely important. For the rebuilding Wildcats, however, a win tonight would capture their first conference road victory since the 1999-2000 season.
“This is definitely a possible road win,” senior forward Natalie Will said. “We’re going to show them our constant defense.”
But the Cats should take caution — the Hoosiers are no strangers to guarding the basket. Indiana currently sits atop the conference standings in three-point and field goal percentage defense. Also, the team is second only to Ohio St. in scoring defense.
Like NU, Indiana’s scoring leader changes from game to game. In the Hoosiers’ most recent game — a 63-58 loss to Illinois — sophomore guard Jenny DeMuth notched a team-high 17 points. The Cats can’t leave guard Cyndi Valentin open, either. The freshman also has topped the Hoosiers’ scorecard this season and averages 10.5 points per game.
Turning the attention towards tonight’s offensive match-up, NU head coach June Olkowski said the two teams are on par with each other.
“We both use a man-to-man offense, well-balanced scoring, share the same mentality,” Olkowski said. “But our zone has been good to us and we’re not afraid to mix it up.”
Will agrees: “We match up really well with them. And seeing how we practice against each other every day, we’ll kind of know how to react to them.”
Although the Cats lost their most recent game, falling 70-51 to DePaul on Saturday, they will draw from the unique experience of playing against the Blue Demons.
“DePaul is also similar to both us and IU, too, so that was a good game to have before this,” Will said.
Even though this is only NU’s third conference game of the season, already Olkowski has seen improvements in her team’s offense, notably a decrease in overall sloppiness.
“We didn’t start the year well, but now we’re becoming confident in our offense, which we work on every day, ” Olkowski said. “When we’re in the flow, we’ve seen good rebounding and we’re taking more shots.”
To the Cats’ advantage, the Hoosiers rank at the bottom of the conference in field goal percentage. If NU can break through Indiana’s defense and capitalize on the Hoosiers’ weak shooting, the Cats will have their best shot of achieving their first Big Ten winning streak in three years.
But every game is tougher on the road, and this season Indiana boasts a perfect 4-0 record at Assembly Hall. Including last season, the Hoosiers have won eight of their last nine at home. Olkowski and her Cats will try to put their opponents’ strong home record out of their minds as they focus on rebounding.
“Every team is better at home, so if we worried about that, we’d just be hurting ourselves,” Olkowski said.
With two teams so concentrated on defense, should the fans tonight expect a low-scoring game? Olkowski doesn’t necessarily think so.
“One would think that the score would be low, but we’re just looking to score enough to win,” she said.
Though NU is still excited about its Jan. 2 win against Michigan State, the Cats are careful not to lose sight of the ultimate goal at hand — a successful season. Will said that her team thinks about one game at a time, and tonight’s face-off has the potential to be another tally in the win column.
“One win doesn’t change our outlook for the rest of the year,” Olkowski said. “To us, that win was a year too late. We just stay focused on the next game.”
NU (6-7, 1-1 Big Ten) @ Indiana (7-4, 0-1)
6 p.m.
Assembly Hall, Bloomington, Ind.
Player to watch: Sophomore center Sarah Kwasinski. Look for Kwasinski — the Big Ten’s No. 2 blocker — to be key as NU tries to match Indiana’s defense.
